Why You Won't Learn Much From Neil Gorsuch's Confirmation Hearing

Former Sen. Kelly Ayotte saidMonday that she hopes there are at least eight Democrats who will support Judge Neil Gorsuch to fill the current vacancy on the Supreme Court, and said people would do well to question the motivations of Democrats who would try to throw up potential blockades.

Neil Gorsuch's mission is straightforward: Don't mess up.

All Gorsuch, 49, has to do is stick to what's mostly a well-worn script for nominees. Democrats claimed that he's found in favor of corporations over "the little guy" during that time, while Republicans credit him with an intelligent and straightforward approach of interpreting the law as it is, not as anyone would wish it to be.

In the presidential election between Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton, Cruz said, "the people chose originalism, textualism and the rule of law".

"His record and his career clearly show he harbors a right-wing, pro-corporate, special-interest agenda", Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of NY said last week.

Democrats seized on the case of lorry driver Alphonse Maddin. In a dissenting opinion, Gorsuch said the trucking company didn't violate federal law.

Furthermore, in that same book, Gorsuch questioned whether the Supreme Court had any business defending any sort of unenumerated constitutional rights under the Due Process Clause of the 14th Amendment. Gorsuch's confirmation would generally restore the court's 5-4 conservative tilt, although Justice Anthony Kennedy, for whom Gorsuch clerked, has joined the liberals on cases involving gay rights, abortion rights and race.

"Senate Republicans made a big show a year ago about respecting the voice of the American people in this process", said Sen.

In his opening statement, Grassley quoted the late Justice Antonin Scalia on the importance of separation of powers, which gives power to the Bill of Rights. If they don't like the results, they oppose confirmation, he said.

"Now they've rehearsed and prepared him for this hearing".

"You apply the law neutrally in all cases, without regard to the parties", Lee said.

Mr Graham also explained that though "no Republicans would have chosen [current Supreme Court Justices] Sotomayor or Kagan but how could anyone say they weren't qualified?"

In ducking such questions, Gorsuch will be able to point to what has become known as the "Ginsburg rule".

"So I hope this nomination hearing focuses on the one person before us", Tillis said.

In his courtesy calls with senators prior to the hearing, Gorsuch was asked about Trump's tweets about the judiciary after the president lashed out at the courts for blocking his travel and immigration ban.

Mr Durbin cautioned Mr Gorsuch that the nominee will "have his hand full with this President" and that a Justice's duty is to the law not the administration or politics.

Ordinary Americans may be understandably perplexed by the controversy over nominating a judge to the highest court in the land.

Media captionThe Supreme Court has been without a full bench for nearly a full year. "It's a framework on which to build", Feinstein said in the hearing.

Last week, President Trump unveiled his first budget.

"If you believe this has been a great plan to get a Trump nominee on the court you had to believe Trump was going to win to begin with". The new push came as the Senate Judiciary Committee today also began their hearings to consider President Trump's pick to the nation's highest court.

"I think it is 50-50 whether the Democrats filibuster", Sen.

Leahy said the GOP is conducting "court unpacking scheme", harkening back to President Franklin D. Roosevelt's failed effort in the 1930s to pack the Supreme Court with more justices, a move lawmakers rejected. "I don't accept the view that they are kabuki theater". The Supreme Court chooses the most hard among this vast array of lower-court cases to decide.